The present invention relates to an agent for promoting hair growth and a preparation method for the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to an agent for promoting hair growth and a preparation method for the same, where the agent for promoting hair growth contains an extract consisting of Rumex japonicas HOUTT, Pleuropterus multiflorus, Radix Notoginseng, safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.), Cnidium officinale, Mentha Arvensis var. Piperascens, Asarum sieboldii, and Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fischer to promote hair growth and prevent production of premature gray hair and alopecia areata.
Hair loss, or alopecia, classified as alopecia areata, male pattern alopecia or female pattern alopecia, refers to an excessive hair-loss condition that results in baldness occurring where the hair is usually present.
Alopecia areata is a condition which hair is lost in coin-like round bald patches on the scalp due to inflammatory disease spread into hair follicles and, not infrequently, nails. Usually, the bald patches are easily distinguishable with obvious boundary and in most cases the hair loss can be quite sudden without any other symptom. The hair loss involves not only the scalp but also other areas of the body, including the beard, eyebrows, eyelashes, or the like. Based on the severity and the shape of the bald patches, the forms of alopecia areata include alopecia totalis and alopecia universalis. The hair loss that spreads to cover the entire scalp is called alopecia totalis. If it spreads over the entire body, the condition is called alopecia universalis. Alopecia totalis and alopecia universalis, sometimes become progressive to combine with each other and expand, frequently with the change of natural cure and recurrence.
Male pattern baldness mostly affects men, involves hair loss on the top and front of the head and a receding hairline, and, in the worse case, remains only a few hairs at the rear of the head.
Female pattern baldness has a similar pattern of hair loss to the male pattern baldness, excepting that even hair loss appears dominantly over the top and front of the head but less around the sides of the head.
There are various causes of alopecia: hair production disorder, hair breakage caused by endogenous factors, disheveled hair, abnormal hair growth cycle, destruction of hair follicles, and so forth. Some hair loss conditions that are diffuse may be caused by hair production disorder or hair breakage and possibly related with hereditary abnormalities. Some hair loss conditions caused by the abnormal hair growth cycle include telogen effluvium, anagen effluvium, alopecia areata, etc. Telogen effluvium can be triggered by endocrine disorder, drugs, or various physical and/or mental stresses. Anagen effluvium is associated with radiation therapy or anticancer drugs. Alopecia areata, although its causes are little well understood, is known as an autoimmune disease. Androgenic alopecia is triggered by androgenic hormones and hereditary factors and classified as local alopecia associated with hair production disorder. Other causes of alopecia include trichotillomania, trichophytia superficialis capillitii, etc.
Different forms of alopecia have different symptoms. Losing up to 100 hairs a day is normal, but shedding more than 50 to 60 hairs a day suggests the diagnosis of alopecia.
Alopecia areata mostly presents as a loss of hair in localized areas of the scalp or any other region of the body to leave round or fused bald patches or sometimes in the similar pattern of alopecia totalis (hair loss over the entire scalp) or alopecia universalis (hair loss over the entire body). With alopecia areata, the scalp appears normal and the affected hairs at the periphery of the lesion are ‘exclamation point hairs’ which are tapered towards the scalp end with thickening and broken in short length at the distal end. Gray hairs are not affected. In some cases, alopecia areata may accompany an autoimmune disease, such as thyroid disease, or malformation of nails (onychodystrophy).
Telogen effluvium involves a hair loss that occurs 2 to 4 months after a specific trigger such as endocrine disorder or drugs and usually decreases over several months as the hairs become restores from the resting phase to normal after the removal of the trigger. It takes around 6 to 12 months to have the hairs grow to some density.
Androgenic alopecia is a common form of hair loss in about 50 percent of both men and women, usually in their 30s or 40s and often in early adolescence. The region of hair loss starts from the forehead and gradually increases to cover the entire head. Men typically presents with hairline recession at both sides of the head and hair loss on the top of the head, while women normally does not have hairline recession but undergoes hair loss in the Christmas tree pattern.
The diagnosis and treatment of alopecia will now be described. The diagnosis of alopecia involves a dermatologist's checking the patient's medical history, an ocular inspection on the lesion, a hair pull test, a biopsy, a hair shaft inspection, and so forth. A dual diagnosis is also performed, for hypopituitarism, hypoadrenalism, hypoparathyroidism, and testicular feminization syndrome are alopecia-related diseases.
The treatment of alopecia such as alopecia areata presenting a localized bald patch includes intralesional steroid injection that involves steroids injected directly into a lesion at intervals of 4 to 6 weeks, or topical or oral administration of steroids. Patients with alopecia areata who does not respond to the other treatments or with extensive alopecia areata may benefit from the immunotherapy.
Androgenic alopecia can be treated with topical minoxidil therapy that involves using a 2% to 5% solution of minoxidil. Female patients with androgenic alopecia may benefit from the oral administration of birth control pills. Male patients with androgenic alopecia may take finasteride, in which case it is known that about 50 percent of the patients has an increase in the hair growth in one year of the finasteride treatment.
There have also been suggested other treatments, such as hair transplant as a surgical therapy, cleansing shampoo, an agent for promoting hair growth, and so forth. Especially, many patent documents from Korea and other countries disclose different agents for promoting hair growth that includes a blend of natural herbs and their preparation methods.
Although numerous known agents and methods for promoting hair growth have been introduced, there is no report that the patients' hair is dramatically promoted to regenerate and secure long-term prevention of hair loss. When patients with alopecia are treated with steroids through injection into the lesion or topical or oral administration of minoxidil or birth control pills for a long time, a few of them have gynecomastia and the diagnostic yield of prostate cancer is low according to the results of a 7-year clinical test on finasteride performed by FDA, but the incidence of high-grade prostate cancer highly malignant and aggressive increases. Moreover, it is well known that the medicines for treatment of alopecia do not accumulate in the body but are mostly excreted from the body in 24 hours. But, hair gradually begins to fall out 3 to 6 months after the patient stops taking the medicine. It is thus needed to take the medicine for such a long time as possible, still with a risk of side effects.
Accordingly, based on the various experiences and expertise of the applicant of the present invention as an international Chinese medical doctor and professor of traditional Chinese medicine at Henan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in China, the present invention is to provide a novel agent for promoting hair growth and a preparation method for the same, where the agent for promoting hair growth includes, as an active ingredient, an extract mixture of horse fat and a medicinal herb material obtained according to the herbal treatment method by drying eight medicinal herbs having a curative effect to fundamentally cure the diseases directly and closely related to alopecia and skin ailments and also effects to promote hair growth, prevent hair loss and help skin care, among a number of medicinal herbs that grow naturally all over the world and do no harm to the human skin even after a long-term application.